NoNukesCA Update – Feb. 15, 2017

Ships were tested in nuclear bombings in the Marshal Islands and then were brought to Hunters Point naval shipyard where they were sandblasted at the shipyard with the radioactivity being spread into the bay and lands.

In San Francisco Hunters Point on February 8, 2017, the US Navy, EPA, California Department of Toxic Substances and San Francisco Health Department held an orchestrated dog and pony show to assure the people of San Francisco and the Hunters Point/Bayview community that they are properly protecting the people after health and safety whistleblowers have exposed the falsification of testing at the site. The African American community and particularly children have been severely affected by the large amount of toxins including radioactive material on the site and now thousands of homes are being built by Lennar Urban on the contaminated areas.
These agencies are supposed to be responsible for ensuring the health and safety of the highly dangerous Superfund radioactive toxic site yet according to them there has been no criminal investigation and prosecution of Tetra Tech and Test America which were involved in bullying, harassing and terminating employees that spoke out about the systemic falsification of the tests of toxics.

San Francisco city officials including the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and politicians including Mayor Ed Lee, Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein have also refused to call for any hearings or investigations of the violation of health and safety rights and illegal terminations of whistleblowers including Michael Madry a quality control manager of Test America and Federal OSHA Whistleblower Protection Program investigator and lawyer who was fired by OSHA chief David Michaels and former Department of Labor DOL secretary Tom Perez.
These workers are still fighting for their jobs back and have gone to many of these agencies including the EPA to address these issues.

The battle to ensure a full cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Lab increased in intensity in 2016 and 2017. The state and federal agencies that had promised cleanup took ever more troubling steps to break their commitments. The cleanup agreements signed in 2010 promised completion by 2017; the agencies have dragged their feet so much that cleanup, if it ever occurs, won’t even begin by then. We keep fighting; concerned elected officials keep pushing; and the media keeps probing. Read more

LA Times graphic

On CA's excess power – From the LA Times

Californians are paying billions for power they don't need

We're using less electricity. Some power plants have even shut down. So why do state officials keep approving new ones?

By Ivan Penn and Ryan Menezes

California has a big — and growing — glut of power, an investigation by the Los Angeles Times has found. The state’s power plants are on track to be able to produce at least 21% more electricity than it needs by 2020, based on official estimates. And that doesn’t even count the soaring production of electricity by rooftop solar panels that has added to the surplus. Read more

On Japan getting out of the nuclear reactor business – From the Financial Times

Downfall of Toshiba, a nuclear industry titan President says woes stem from purchase of Westinghouse reactor business

One of the troubled projects at Westinghouse, Toshiba's subsidiary, is a new nuclear plant at Vogtle in the US
by: Kana Inagaki and Leo Lewis in Tokyo, and Ed Crooks in New York

After a day of chaotic communication, a stock sell-off and a $6.3bn writedown that may destroy one of Japan’s greatest industrial names, the Toshiba president’s bow of apology finally came.
Satoshi Tsunakawa’s head nodded for just one perfunctory second on Tuesday. Most assume there will be much deeper, longer bows to come as Toshiba leads investors, customers, employees and Japan as a whole through the country’s first downfall of a nuclear industry titan. In a humiliating setback for a conglomerate that had only recently touted its nuclear business as a core growth driver, Toshiba said it would pull out of constructing new plants overseas and focus on providing less lucrative but lower-risk reactor designs and nuclear equipment. One investor says the potential downsizing of Toshiba’s nuclear ambitions could make what remains of the company difficult “even for a contrarian investor to consider”. It is also a damaging blow to the outlook for the nuclear industry worldwide. Toshiba’s decision to give up on bidding to be a lead contractor on nuclear power plant projects will dramatically reduce its ability to compete with rivals from China, South Korea and Russia, and limit the options for countries seeking to build reactors.

As Toshiba was reporting its huge writedown, the French utility EDF, which has also been beset by problems with its new-build nuclear projects, warned of a “challenging” 2017 after being hit by weak power prices and problems with some existing reactors last year. Read more